Like most big U.K. bands in the '90s,
Blur
had a plethora of non-album tracks surface on singles, which remained a much more viable format in Europe than in the U.S. in terms of actual chart activity and placement.
Special Collectors Edition
, a Japanese-only release, does a fairly good job in collecting many, though by no means all, of those B-sides and extra tracks from the band's first singles through the
Parklife
era. As a parallel history of
's development from semi-
Madchester
/semi-
shoegazer
art school
rock
to
Brit-pop
flag wavers, it's manna for fans as well as being interesting in its own right. A fair number of songs could easily have ended up on the group's albums based on overall quality, while other tunes, if not as strong, often have a certain standalone charm. Among the earliest tracks,
"Luminous"
is noteworthy for its slightly stoned and zoned flavor,
Dave Rowntree
's percussion almost echoing early
Pink Floyd
jams, while
"Mace,"
originally a B-side to
"Popscene,"
shows
starting to come to grips with a catchier form of whimsy. The
Modern Life
B-sides are an interesting mixed bag, ranging from the sweet electric
psych
/acoustic
folk
drift of
"Peach"
to the trebly
art
-
punk
blast of
"Fried."
The
tracks show the increasingly ambitious group fully coming into their own, with everything from the goofy carousel-music romp
"Anniversary Waltz"
to the sweeping, gently self-mocking
"Theme from an Imaginary Film."
A lovely final touch is the version of
"Bank Holiday"
at the very end -- the song itself is an album cut from
, but the rough kazoos-only performance is in fact by seven female fans at Tokyo Airport.
Edition
's humorous packaging also deserves special notice -- prepared by the U.K. design firm Stylorouge, it consists of a series of advertisements for kitsch British products, including a
commemorative plate. ~ Ned Raggett